The romance film “The First Time”, starring Angelababy and Mark Chao, is set to hit cinemas on June 8. A collection of still shots featuring Angelababy dancing have been released prior to the film’s release.

“Double Trouble” will be opening in North American AMC Theatres on June 8. It will play in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York and Seattle. In Canada, the film will be released in Vancouver and Toronto.

Sina: Terence Chang issued a statement denying recent rumors that John Woo had throat or pancreatic cancer or a heart ailment. According to him, Woo had the beginnings of a throat tumor removed at the beginning of the year in Taipei and went to the US to rest but he was not hospitalized there as reported. John Woo also called the media and reassured them that he was in good health and only had a small tumor on the neck that had spread to his tonsils removed. 2, 3

In a recent coup for Huairou, Keanu Reeves signed on to shoot “Man of Tai Chi,” a $32 million contemporary chopsocky and tai chi actioner that will film here. The cast includes Tiger Chen and Karen Mok, with Reeves as a bad guy — and martial arts choreography by Yuen Woo-ping (”The Matrix”).

Local auds didn’t flock to “City of Life and Death” in expected numbers, partially because Lu made the Japanese general in the war movie a real character.

Now the director wants his vision to appeal to auds in the booming China market as he gets ready to unveil “The Last Supper,” a costume drama about two warring generals, toplining mainland-friendly stars Liu Ye, Daniel Wu and Taiwanese thesp Chang Chen.

Two versions of the film are in the pipeline, with Jacob Cheung Chi-Leung directing and Tony Ching Siu-Tung producing and filming to begin in July. An international US-China version hopes to get Danny Boyle to direct with an unnamed actress in the lead.

After its premier in 1951, the film was soon caught up in ideological disputes, which saw it pilloried as being pro-capitalist, a severe accusation in an era characterized by its black-and-white politics. However, Mao Zedong’s criticism of the film, in which he labeled it as carrying a message detrimental to the principles of socialism, was perhaps the main reason behind the banning of the film.

After a boisterous but highly undemocratic contest featuring feuding tycoons, dark rumors of closet communism and a host of scandals over sex, gangsters and an illegal wine cellar, Hong Kong elites on Sunday selected a wealthy, China-backed populist as the new leader of this former British colony.

Fiona Law, who teaches a class on Hong Kong cinema at the University of Hong Kong and has done extensive research on the phenomenon of the Chinese New Year movie, says the first known example was “Bloom and Prosper,” a 1937 comedy from mainland director Tang Xiaodan. No copy is believed to survive, but Dr. Law says it involves a familiar theme for the genre: winning the lottery and easy fortune.

The film has also broken new ground with its moon cakes tie in. After a limited edition of 3,000 boxes of hawthorn fruit moon cakes sold out, more were produced and are expected to create significant income for the Zhangs’ Beijing New Picture Film company.

“The Founding of a Republic” tops the best film nominees list for the 30th Hundred Flowers Awards.

Winners will be announced after a final round of voting during the 19th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival scheduled from October 12 to 16 in Jiangyin, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province.

Zhang Ziyi in Seoul, South Korea selected as host city of the 2013 Winter Special Olympics (Xinhua), 2

Mabel Cheung, Alex Law received Honorary Fellowships from Hong Kong University for their contribution to the university and the community as a whole. Their film Echoes of the Rainbow is credited with setting off a wave of conservation efforts. (Sina)

Basketball star Yao Ming, movie director John Woo and piano prodigy Lang Lang are among dozens of celebrities who will appear in television commercials later this year in a bid by China to boost its image abroad.

The cast of “Ice Kacang Puppy Love” including Angelica Lee, Fish Leong, Victor Wong and Gary Cao attended the press conference. They are all well-known entertainers among the Chinese-speaking community.

For years, Donnie Yen worked in the shadow of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Having fought both on-screen, the 47-year-old actor was considered a worthy opponent but not necessarily a leading man in his own right.

A circus clown named Sunny (Aaron Kwok) goes on a hiking trip with a few colleagues to explore the mountains of Malaysia. The group finds a cave where they accidentally inhale a type of gas which turns out to be a biological weapon leftover by the Japanese from World War II.

The new actress selected for Jay Chou’s sequel to The Secret is Man Qi. Man Qi is an actress-model previously known as ‘little Lin Chi-Ling’. The film will employ 3D to create a Hollywood-style musical love story. The Chinese title is Beyond Time and Space.

A US website, http://in20years.com/, allows users to upload their photo and see what they look like in 20, 30 years. Recently, fans uploaded pictures of popular Chinese stars. You can see the results for Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhao Wei, Jay Chou and Liu Yifei. The site also offers a drug addict parameter, but mostly it Westernizes the Chinese faces. (Xinhua)

Cherie Chung in France

Hong Kong’s East Week found Cherie Chung in France recently living a leisurely life in a series of spy photos. (Xinhua)

Foxconn, which makes Apple Inc. iPads and Sony Corp. games machines, began putting up nets after at least 10 workers committed suicide this year…Foxconn Group employs more than 400,000 workers in Shenzhen, southern China, and has around 800,000 employees in the country.

She said it was her first time at the fair. Rose also said that there was a possibility that she would go to Taiwan and film an idol series. Asked whom she would most like to co-star with, Rose said, Ethan Ruan. (Sina)

The poster features Zhang Jingchu in a play on Painted Skin, Huang Xiaoming mimics ‘Wolverine’, Fan Siu-Wong as Captain Jack in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, Richie Jen from ‘Transformers’. The film opens July 9. (Sina)

With a long list of TV and film commercials for some of the world’s leading brands under his belt and the only Chinese director to win a prestigious One Show Gold award for excellence in advertising, Li Weiran is considered by many as the best in the business. He sat down with the Global Times to reflect over his 10-year career and talk about the future.

The film was shot by many pop, film and TV stars, including Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Li Xiaoran, Chen Jianbin and Wang Luodan. It is composed of three separate stories in modern society. The complicated relationships of the main characters in each story present “not beautiful but real life.”

Rumors that Gong Li and her husband, a Singapore businessman, have divorced resurfaced again recently. Over the years, besides Zhang Yimou, Gong Li has been romantically linked to Sun Honglei, Sun Zhou (both of Zhou Yu’s Train), Collin Farrell (Miami Vice), a French photographer, and John Cusack (Shanghai). (Xinhua)

According to a Hong Kong magazine, Andy Hui has broken up with girlfriend Michelle and is actively trying to win his ex-lover’s heart back.

It was said that Andy has been visiting Sammi Cheng’s father regularly, even converting to Christianity in a bid to gain favour. Sammi was reportedly so touched by his moves that she agreed to Andy’s proposal.

When quizzed about the report, Sammi denied said allegations and emphasized the point that they are not back together and a patch-up would not be happening anytime soon.

Six years after his movie and album debut, 27-year-old Jaycee Chan said he was starting to shed the baggage of his famous family name and finding his niche in the Chinese-language entertainment industry.

Ip Chun also told the media that he will not authorize anymore Ip Man films, meaning “The Legend is Born - Ip Man” will be the last film about Ip Man.

Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi made a low key appearance at the Beijing premiere of Ocean Heaven. Although she did not walk the blue carpet, Zhang Ziyi met Jet Li who introduced his daughters inside the theater. Said Zhang of the film afterwards, “Before we say mother love is the greatest, the movie makes us see the power of fatherly love. I was moved by the emotion of father and son.” (Xinhua)